I used to think all my fabric swatches needed to be perfectly organized by color in a binder...

Now I keep them in a big, messy box by texture and weight because a designer in Seattle told me it forces you to think about drape and structure first, which totally changed how I start a project... anyone else have a weird system that actually works?

3 comments

3 Comments

wendyprice9d ago

Totally get that shift in thinking. Read an interview once with a costume designer who said she files swatches by the emotion they evoke, like "melancholy" or "joyful" instead of color. Sounded nuts at first, but it makes sense for character design, lol.

logan_ellis9d ago

She files them by EMOTION?

ray_miller849d ago

Honestly that sounds crazy at first. But after seeing @logan_ellis's comment, it clicked for me. My old system was all about color matching, but grouping by texture makes you feel the material before you see it. Now I get why starting with the weight of a fabric changes everything.